The Intimacy Issue: himumimdead
This sort of vulnerability with the self is exactly what inspired our May digital cover—the Intimacy issue. In thinking about what being intimate—both with others and with yourself—means during such strange times, we of course wanted to explore dildos, orgasms, and Chaturbate culture. It is office, after all.
But we also wanted to move beyond that. What do our current conditions mean in terms of being intimate in all facets of the word—being intimate with your thoughts? With abstraction? With objects or ideas? Do you cringe at your overgrown hair when looking in the mirror and the Snapchat camera? How has isolation played a part in your want or need to be intimate? Have you developed any new intimate relationships while in quarantine?
We asked 13 subjects to explore these ideas in a series of remotely-shot portraits and videos. We also asked each subject to write a diary entry with this vulnerability in mind.
This is himumimdead.
Pauly, aka himumimdead, makes art that is gritty and inspired. It's hard to say exactly what he is. Visual artist? Designer? "Curator"? Pauly transcends any sort of label because what he does seemingly just comes straight from his mind and onto a canvas, or a hoodie, or in the form of a sexed-up Polaroid.
In fact, no one really knows who he is—they just know his art. And that's exactly the way Pauly wants it. "I don't really feel comfortable with attention so have kept pretty lowkey and have managed to work in a ghost-like way in my career," he tells us via WhatsApp. For the Intimacy issue, Pauly created some images that feel exactly how we're all feeling right about now—jumbled, messy, and very raw.
Watch this video, as well as all the other Intimacy videos, on .show, the new interactive video camera and shoppable video marketplace.
